LOCAL AND GENERAL

Chronicle (Levin), 23 September 1946, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL

First Shining>i6irckpo The shiMng:cttekoo has appeared i in Auckland'.'" Accepted as a har- | binger of (Spifihg in New Ztaland, , shinmg:/CUbk66s come from the S o 1 omon '.agl^rids to breed in the Domini'ori tff'the warm season. Hen's SmUlTlEgg An unusiially small egg, measuring three-quarters of an inch in length, just sufficient to overlap a sixpenny piece, was laid this week by a Rhode Island hen at Westmere. The hen is a mature bird and this is the first freak egg it has laid. Bright Aurora At about 8 o'clock last evening, the Aurora Australis was very bright in the . south-west heavens. White shafts of light strerched from the horizon gradually turning through pink to a dull red and back to white again. The display lasted only about half an hour and was seen in Levin and Otaki. Truck Strikes Bridge When a light truck struck the side of a bridge at Rototahi, East Coast, shortly after midnight, the driver was killed and a passenger was injured. Four others escaped with a shaking. The victim was | Harold Half, aged 51, a married farmer, of Three Bridges. The injured was Oscar Olsen, a married man who received a broken wrist. Record Oyster Meal While the Canterbury Rugby footballers were - in Invercargill recently they looked on as keenly interested spectators at the annual Southland oyster-eating championships held on the Saturday evening after the match. The winner turned out to be S. Cole, a local man, who consumed 16 dozen and a-half. This, however, came nowhere near the record established a number of years ago by C. Bradshaw, a resident of Bluff, who at one sitting consumed 24 dozen oysters, duly checked and certified. Car Accident Near Linton When two cars collided on the Palmerston North-Wellington highway, about half a mile south of the Linton Camp Road, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, William Gribble, a staffsergeant, of Trentham Military Camp, received injuries which necessitated his removal to the Palmerston North Hospitah Gribble was a passenger in a car driven by William Birrell, of Wellington, proceeding south from Palmerston North. The other car was driven by A. W. G. Pollett, of Petone, and was travelling towards Palmerston North. Dairy Industry in North Canterbury Some persons believed thatdairying in North Canterbury would not recover from its present position, said Mr. W. G. Macartney, who is chairman of directors in the Tai Tapu Central Co-operative Dairy Company., Ltd., at Christchurch. While at present smallhseeds might be more profitable thari dairy farming, his company thought that with the eventual return of normal trading conditions dairy produce, particularly butter, would be the commodity which could provide stability for the farmer. Police Conference A complete overhaul of all Police Force Acts and regulations, with a view to their consolidation, will be undertaken by the eleventh annual conference of the New Zealand Police Association, which will begin in Wellington on October 1. The work will be done in co-opera-tion with the Police Department. Delegates from all 15 police districts will be present at the conference, which will be opened by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, as Minister in charge of Police. The Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, has been invited to attend, and the Commissioner of Police, Mr. J. Cummings, will give an address. Land Saies Act Applications Applications . under the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Saies Act totalled 43,899 for the year ended March 31, 1946, states the annual report of the Lands and Survey Department. Applications in the previous year. totalled 37,038. The figure of 43,899 comprised 38,262 urban properties and 5637 rural transactions. The average number of registered transactions for the three years preceding the Act was 28,201, and so, states the report, it appears that little or no restraint had been laid upon the property market by the Act. Moreover, it seemed that, nothwithstandihg the housing shortage, there was little to discourage the free sale of town properties.